City play possession football. As do Liverpool now. Same with City and Barcelona. Just becuase they all don't play identical to Peps Barcelona (on account of not having Xavi, Iniesta and Messi) doesn't mean it isn't possession football. Also possession football doesn't mean you have to pass it around slowly. LVG 's time here seems to have really confused everybody on what possession football is. It was various iterations and variations. Out of the aforementioned ones I suppose Liverpool are the only debateable one, but I think they have in recent times moved from the mad press counter attack style to a more possession based one - and it's helped them.
Yes it's all about phases of play in modern football. Stamina and work rate is used tactically during a game.
- There is controlling phase (possession across the back line to midfield, conservating stamina through patient attacks.)
- The Attacking phase (Teams will start pressing hard, passing fast to score goals. This is when we drain stamina the most.)
- The Defending phase (Normally when we're done attacking, we will have to sit back and minimize pressing efforts to avoid injuries to players. Attacking will be reduced to counter attacking.)\
City, Liverpool, Chelsea, PSG and other elite teams have quality midfielders to control the game for the large part of the game. Something that is missing in our team at the moment, due to midfield lack of signings and injuries. We are capable of playing along the back line, but that will invite pressure and mistakes if we kept that for most of our games.
City plays possession football for the large part of the game, simply because they have proper players for that. Some might think it's typical possession football, play it slow, composed and relaxed, but no. It is more fast and direct compared to possession football in the past. But then again, they will struggle now due to injuries.
